Let’s go back to New Orleans (Food, Culture and Nightlife)

I think I’m ready to go back to New Orleans. A few years ago, Mike and I cruised out of the New Orleans port. We tacked on 3-4 days on the front of the trip so we could explore the city as a whole. I wanted more time in the city, because I grew up romanticizing it. In high school, I poured over Anne Rice’s Vampire novels, and steeped myself in knowledge about her and her life. As a teenager, New Orleans became my dream location. I was sure I was going to fall in love with the fair city, and that it would be hard to leave.

In a post-Katrina world, it was a little different then I expected. There was history, and nightlife as promised the sadness of Katrina recovery and the ubiquitous Bourbon Street nightlife invaded my day dreams.

A normal house in New Orleans

The Food of New Orleans

I’m ready to go back though. The food of New Orleans, is the stuff of dreams. Fresh seafood, french sauces and home style cooking mix together on your plate. One taste of crunchy fried chicken livers, or finger licking sticky cornbread covered in honey, and it’s true love.

There Chef Kevin taught us to make Pralines, Gumbo, Jambalaya and Bread Pudding.

Chef Kevin CooksJambalaya

We came away with full stomachs, a cookbook, pages of handwritten notes about the recipes. As I revisit them, I’ll share the recipes at AlmostDinner.com

The Culture of New Orleans

We went to Mardi Gras world and watched them build floats for the big parades, creating new floats from old, rebuilding from old ideas to new.

Mardi Gras world is in a warehouse down off the Mississippi river. It is a working art studio, storage facility and event venue. The Krewes of Mardi Gras don’t own their own floats, they only lease them from year to year , with Mardi Gras world’s artists helping recycle, restore and recreate the floats from year to year. For example, what is a hobbit hole this year, becomes Shrek’s hovel next year. The Krewes own the underlying trailers, which are worth up to 80K. Krewes have at least 14 floats in each parade, some holding as many as 40 people with their beads, plushies and other tokens. (The trailers even have bathrooms because float riders are often stuck on the floats upwards of 8 hours. )

We also visited a public art market at Frenchmen street. We got to see the works of local craftsman, and talk to people about what it meant to be an artist in a post-Katrina world.

Lots of recycled materials. The kind of work you’d see in the industrial areas of Seattle, but with a Louisiana Flair.